We continued to sponsor the Brighton Festival Children’s Parade and Festival Fringe as part of our ongoing We’re Backing Brighton campaign.

The campaign was launched to thank the residents of Brighton and Hove for their patience during our work to replace 57km of Victorian water mains in the city.

About 4,000 pupils from more than 70 schools took part in the annual parade, which had the theme Children’s Games. We supplied a water station and handed out chilled water and 5,000 re-usable water bottles to youngsters and their families at the end of the parade.

We seconded two of our graduate trainees to help organisers of the Brighton Festival while Fringe City, a highlight of the Festival Fringe, involved a month of street entertainment in the city centre. Other members of staff volunteered to go into selected schools in Brighton and support young children who were at risk of falling behind with their reading.

The We’re Backing Brighton campaign drew praise from local MPs and won two awards for best community relations during the year.